UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — A Penn State Soil Judging Team won the Northeast Regional Soil Judging Contest held Oct. 21-25 near Adamstown, Md.
The winning team was comprised of Nancy Kammerer, a junior agroecology major from Gettysburg; Scott King, a senior nondegree major from Hillsgrove; Rachael Krizmanich, a senior environmental resource management major from Edinboro; Greg Ritson, a junior environmental resource management major from Limerick; and Devon Turner, a junior environmental resource management major from Philipsburg.
A second Penn State team competed but did not place.
The annual contest allows students to practice describing and interpreting soils. The top schools from each region then compete in a national event held the following spring. Seven teams competed this year.
The University of Maryland hosted the event and placed second, and the University of Rhode Island finished third.
Also competing were Delaware Valley College, Wilmington College, Richard Stockton College and Ohio State University. Kammerer, who finished first, individually; Turner, sixth; Jacob Gogno, a senior environmental resource management major from Pottsville, 10th; Kaitlyn Benson, a junior environmental resource management major from Elizabethtown, 13th; and Krizmanich, 16th.
The team has qualified to go to nationals, which will be hosted in spring 2014 by Delaware Valley College, Doylestown.
Donations welcome. Traveling to nationals will be a great experience for the students, but costly, said coach Patrick Drohan, associate professor of pedology.
He urged anyone interested in supporting the team to contribute to the squad’s travel fund at http://soiljudging.psu.edu/.
